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be in residence eight months, and the canons three months, in every year. The bishop is visitor of the dean and chapter. 2. The dean of peculiars "hath no chapter, yet is presentative, and hath cure of souls; he hath a peculiar, and is not subject to the visitation of the bishop." 3. The third dean "hath no cure of souls, but hath a court and a peculiar, in which he holdeth plea and jurisdiction of all such ecclesiastical matters as come within his peculiar. Such is the Dean of the Arches, who is the judge of the court of the arches, the chief court and consistory of the archbishop of Canterbury, so called of Bow Church, where this court was ever wont to be held." The parish of Bow and twelve others are within the peculiar jurisdiction of the archbishop in spiritual causes, and exempted out of the bishop of London's jurisdiction. 4. Rural deans are clergymen whose duty is described as being "to execute the bishop's processes and to inspect the lives and manners of the clergy and people within their jurisdiction" (see Phillimore's Ecclesiastical Law).

In the colleges of the English universities one of the fellows usually holds the office of "dean," and is specially charged with the discipline, as distinguished from the teaching functions of the tutors.

DEBENTURE, a deed by which certain property is charged with the repayment of money lent at a fixed interest. It is commonly adopted by companies of a public nature as a means of raising money for carrying on their undertakings. The creation of debenture stock in such companies is regulated in England by the Companies Clauses Act, 1863, part iii., which makes debenture stock a prior charge on the undertaking, and gives the interest thereon priority of payment over all dividends or interest on any shares or stock of the company, whether ordinary or preference or guaranteed. Payment of arrears may be enforced by appointment of a receiver, or (in Scotland) of a judicial factor.

DEBRECZYN, or DEBRETZN, a royal free city of Hungary, the chief town of the comitat of Hadju, and one of the largest in the kingdom, is situated in the midst of a slightly elevated sandy plain 114 miles east of Pesth, with which it is connected by rail. It is a meanly-built, straggling town, with irregular suburbs stretching out into the plain; its wide roadways are only paved with wood down the centre and along the sides; its houses are with few exceptions only one story high, and the courtyards or gardens with which they are usually furnished give the whole place the appearance of an overgrown village, in spite of the number of its public buildings. The most prominent of these is the principal Protestant church, which ranks as the largest in the country, but has no great architectural pretensions. In its immediate neighbourhood is the Protestant Collegium, a large and flourishing institution founded in 1792, and possessed of an extensive library. The town-house, the Franciscan church, the Piarist monastery and college, and the theatre are worthy of mention; there are also hospitals, two gymnasiums, and an agricultural academy. The industries of the town are pretty various, but none of them are of importance enough to give it the character of a manufacturing centre. Its tobacco-pipes, of the genuine national style, its sausages, and its soap are widely known; and the first of the three are imported to England and France. Flour and beet-root sugar are also manufactured. Every three months the neighbouring plain is covered with the booths and bustle of a great fair; but since the opening of the railway there is hardly so extensive a concourse as before. Between 300 and 400 square miles of territory belong to the municipality, which derives a large annual revenue from the woods, pastures, &c. The inhabitants are, with very few exceptions, of Magyar origin and Calvinistic creed, and are in bad

repute for their alleged selfishness and inhospitality. The town is of considerable antiquity, but owes its development to the refugees who flocked from the villages plundered by the Turks in the 15th century. In 1552 it adopted the Protestant faith. and it had to suffer in consequence, especially when it was captured in 1686 by the imperial forces. In 1693 it was made a royal free city. In 1848-9 it formed a refuge for the National Government and Legislature when Buda-Pesth fell into the hands of the Austrians; and it was in the great Calvinist church that Kossuth read the proclamation that declared the house of Hapsburg to have forfeited the crown of Stephen._ _On the 3d of July the town was captured by the Russians. Population in 1869, 46,111.

DEBT is a sum certain due by one person to another. It may be created by contract, by statute, or by judgment. By the Judicature Act, 1873, any absolute assignment of any debt or other legal chose in action, of which express notice in writing shall have been given to the debtor, trustee, or other person from whom the assignor would have been entitled to receive or claim such debt, shall be effectual in law. If the debtor receives notice that such assignment is disputed by the assignor, or any one claiming under him, he may call upon the parties to interplead concerning the same, or he may pay the money into court in conformity with the Acts for the Relief of Trustees. Order xlv. of the Rules of Court under the same Act contains the provisions under which the debts due to a person against whom a judgment has passed for the payment of money may be attached by the judgment creditor. See BANKRUPTCY.

DECALOGUE (in patristic Greek, dekáλoyos, sc, Bißlos or vouobería) is another name for the ten com mandments, in Hebrew the ten words (Deut. iv. 13,x. 4; Exod. xxxiv. 28), written on the two tables of stone, the socalled tables of the revelation (E. V., tables of testimony-Ex. xxxiv. 29, comp. ch. xxv. 21), or tables of the covenant (Deut. ix. 9). In Deuteronomy the inscription on these tables, which is briefly called the covenant (iv. 13), is expressly identified with the words spoken by Jehovah out of the midst of the fire at Mount Sinai in the ears of the whole people on the "day of the assembly," and rehearsed in ch. v. 6-21. In the narrative of Exodus the relation of the "ten words " of ch. xxxiv. to the words spoken from Sinai, ch. xx. 2-17, is not so clearly indicated-a circumstance which has given rise to speculations as to the possible existence of a second decalogue. Before entering on this question, however, we must examine the decalogue as usually understood and embodied in the parallel passages in Exod. xx. and Deut. v.

1. The variations in the parallel texts, so far as they are important for the criticism of the decalogue, are mainly two. (a) The reason assigned for the institution of the Sabbath in Exodus is drawn from the creation, and agrees with Gen. ii. 3. In Deuteronomy the command is based on the duty of humanity to servants and the memory of Egyptian bondage. (b) In the tenth commandment, as given in Exodus, "house means house and household, including all the particulars which are enumerated in ver. 17. In Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt not covet thy neigh bour's wife" comes first, and "house" fellowing in associa tion with field is to be taken in the literal restricted sense.

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2. The construction of the Hebrew text of the second commandment is disputed, but the most natural sense seems to be, "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image; [and] to no visible shape in heaven, &c., shalt thou bow down, &c." The third commandment might be better rendered, "Thou shalt not utter the name of the Lord thy God vainly."

3. Divisions of the Decalogue.-The division current in

England and Scotland, and generally among the Reformed (Calvinistic) churches and in the Greek Church, is known as the Philonic division (Philo de Decalogo, § 12). It is sometimes called by the name of Origen, who adopts it in his Homilies on Exodus. On this scheme the preface, Exod. xx. 2, has been usually taken as part of the first commandment. The Church of Rome and the Lutherans adopt the Augustinian division (Aug., Quæst. super Exod., lxxi.), combining into one the first and second commandments of Philo, and splitting his tenth commandment into two. To gain a clear distinction between the ninth and tenth commandments on this scheme it has usually been felt to be necessary to follow the Deuteronomic text, and make the ninth commandment, Thou shalt not covet they neighbour's wife.1 As scarcely any scholar will now claim priority for the text of Deuteronomy, this division may be viewed as exploded. But there is a third scheme (the Talmudic) still current among the Jews, and not unknown to early Christian writers, which is still a rival of the Philonic view. The preface, Exod. xx. 2, is taken as the first word, and the second embraces verses 3-6. Among recent Christian writers who have adopted this view are Knobel (in his Com. on Exodus) and Kuenen (Godsdienst van Israël, i. 278.). The decision between Philo and the Talmud must turn on two questions. Can we take the preface as a separate word? And can we regard the prohibition of polytheism and the prohibition of idolatry as one commandment? Now, though the Hebrew certainly speaks of ten "words," not of ten "precepts," it is most unlikely that the first word can be different in character from those that follow. But the statement "I am the Lord thy God," is either no precept at all, or only enjoins by implication what is expressly commanded in the words "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Thus to take the preface as a distinct word is not reasonable unless there are cogent grounds for uniting the commandments against polytheisin and idolatry. But that is far from being the case. The first precept of the Philonic scheme enjoins monolatry, the second expresses God's spiritual and transcendental nature. Accordingly Kuenen does not deny that the prohibition of images contains an element additional to the precept of monolatry, but, following De Goeje, regards the words from "thou shalt not make unto thyself" down to "the waters under the earth" as a later insertion in the original decalogue. Unless this can be made out-of which below -the Philonic scheme is clearly best, and as such it is now accepted by most scholars.

How were the ten words disposed on the two tables? The natural arrangement (which is assumed by Philo and Josephus) would be five and five. And this, as Philo recognized, is a division appropriate to the sense of the precepts; for antiquity did not look on piety towards parents as a mere precept of probity, part of one's duty towards one's neighbour. The authority of parents and rulers is viewed in the Old Testament as a delegated divine authority, and the violation of it is akin to blasphemy (comp. Ex. xxi. 17, Lev. xx. 9, with Lev. xxiv. 15, 16, and note the formula of treason, 1 Kings xxi. 13). We have thus five precepts of piety on the first table, and five of probity on the second, an arrangement which is accepted by the best recent writers. But the current view of the Western Church since Augustine has been that the precept to honour parents heads the second table. The only argument of weight in favour of this view is that it makes the amount of writing on the two tables less unequal, while we know that the second table as well as

So, for example, Augustine, 2. c. Thomas, Summa (Prima Secundæ, qu. c. art. 4), and recently Sonntag and Kurtz. Purely arbitrary is the idea of Lutheran writers (Gerhard, Loc. xiii. § 46) that the ninth commandment forbids concupiscentia actualis, the tenth conc. originalis.

the first was written on both sides (Ex. xxxii. 15). But we shall presently see that there may be another way out of this difficulty.

4. Critical questions.-That the decalogue not only contains Mosaic ideas, but is as old as Moses in its form as a system of "ten words," is admitted by critics of almost every school. But it is much disputed what the original compass of the decalogue was. Did the whole text of Exod. xx. 2-17 stand on the tables of stone? The answer to this question must start from the reason annexed to the fourth commandment, which is different in Deuteronomy. But the express words "and he added no more," in Deut. v. 22, show that there is no conscious omission by the Deuteronomic speaker of part of the original decalogue, which cannot therefore have included the reason annexed in Exodus. On the other hand the reason annexed in Deuteronomy is rather a parenetic addition than an origiral element dropped in Exodus.. Thus the original fouth commandment was simply "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."3 When this is granted it must appear not improbable that the elucidations of other commandments may not have stood on the tables. Thus in the second commandment, "Thou shalt not bow down to any visiblo form," &c., is a sort of explanatory addition to the precept "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image." And so the promise attached to the fifth commandment was probably not on the tables, and the tenth commandment may have simply been, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house," which includes all that is expressed in the following clauses. Such a view gets over the difficulty arising from the unequal length of the two halves of the decalogue. The elucidations (unless in the case of the fourth commandment) may very well be as old as Moses (comp. Ewald, Geschichte, ii. 229). It is quite another question whether there is any idea in the decalogue which cannot be as old as Moses. It is urged by many critics that Moses cannot have prohibited the worship of Jehovah by images; for tho subsequent history shows us a descendant of Moses as priest in the idolatrous sanctuary of Dan. There were teraphim in David's house, and the worship of Jehovah under the image of a calf was the state religion of the kingdom of Ephraim. It is argued from these facts that image worship went on unchallenged, and that this would not have been possible had Moses forbidden it. This argument does not appear to have all the force that Kuenen and others attach to it, for it must be remembered how large a section of Christendom, in times much more advanced than those of the Old Testament, has accepted the decalogue and yet has worshipped images. And on the other side we have the much more cogent arguments that the number of ten words, which no one doubts to be primitive, cannot be naturally made out if the law against images is dropped, and that the existence of this law is necessary to explain the fact that the unquestionably Mosaic sanctuary of the ark, which is just the sanctuary of the revelation of the ten words, embodies the principle of the worship of Jehovah without images in a distinct and practical form. It may be added that the prohibition of images of hewn stone, which is the primitive sense of the word "graven-image," can hardly be less ancient than the conception that the stones of an altar were defiled by the touch of the chisel (Exod. xx. 24). And this is a conception which cannot be viewed as a later refinement on Mosaic ideas.

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5. The Decalogue of Exodus xxxiv.-In the book of Exodus the words written on the tables of stone are nowhere expressly identified with the ten commandments of

Exceptions to this consensus are Vatke (Biblische Theologie, p. 202) and Nöldeke (Untersuchungen, p. 51).

It is generally assumed that the addition in Exodus is from the hand that wrote Gen i.-ii. 4.

chap. xx. In xxv. 16 xxxi. 18, xxxii. 15, we simply |
read of "the revelation " inscribed on the tables, and it
seems to be assumed that the contents of this revelation
must be already known to the reader. The expression
"ten words" first occurs in xxxiv. 28, in a passage which
relates the restoration of the tables after they had been
broken. But these "ten words are called "the words
of the covenant," and so can hardly be different from the
words mentioned in the preceding verse as those in accord-
ance wherewith the covenant was made with Israel. And
again, the words of verse 27 are necessarily the command-
ments which immediately precede in verses 12-26. Accord-
ingly many recent critics, following Hitzig,1 who seems to
have formed his view without reference to a previous
suggestion of Goethe's, have sought to show that Exod.
xxxiv. 12-26 contains just ten precepts forming a second
decalogue. In point of detail it is disputed whether the
narrator of Exod. xxxiv. regards this decalogue as precisely
identical with that which stood on the first tables (which
seems to follow from xxxiv. 1) or as a modification of the
original words (so Ewald). It does not seem possible to
deny the connection of verses 27, 28 with one another and
with the previous context as the text now stands. Hengs-
tenberg (Beiträge, ii. 387 f.) and Bertheau (Sieben Gruppen
Mosaischer Gesetze, p. 97) seek to distinguish the words of
verse 28, as written by God himself, from those which, in
verse 27, Moses is commanded to write. But no such dis-
tinction lies in the text, and it is not probable that the
narrator felt any contradiction between God's promise to
write the words in verse 1 and the use of human instrumen-
tality as implied in verse 28. On the other hand, the
hypothesis of a second decalogue has serious if not insuper
able difficulties. The number of ten precepts in Exod.
xxxiv. is by no means clearly made out, and the individual
precepts are variously assigned by different critics; while
the most recent supporter of the theory admits that the
original number of ten is now concealed by additions.
This supposed decalogue contains no precepts of social
morality, but forms a sort of unsystematic abstract of the
oldest laws about points of religious observance. If such
a system of precepts was ever viewed as the basis of the
covenant with Israel, it must belong to a far earlier stage
of religious development than that of Exod. xx. This is
recognized by Wellhausen, who says that our decalogue
stands to that of Exod. xxxiv. as Amos stood to his con-
temporaries. whose whole religion lay in the observance of
sacred feasts. But the idea that the ethical teaching of the
prophets had no basis in the original document of the
Mosaic covenant is so revolutionary that few will venture
to accept "Goethe's decalogue" with such inferences. The
difficulty is presumably due to the interweaving of several
distinct narratives, which perplexes the sequence of many
parts of Exodus. It is more probable that xxxiv: 10-27-
a summary of the religious precepts of the Mosaic conve-
nant-originally stood in a different connection than that
there ever were two opinions as to what stood on the tables.
6. The Decalogue in Christian Theology.-Following
the New Testament, in which the "commandments "
summed up in the law of love are identified with the pre-
cepts of the decalogue (Mark x. 19: Rom. xiii. 9; cf.
Mark xii. 28 .), the ancient church emphasized the
permanent obligation of the ten commandments as a sum-
mary of natural in contradistinction to ceremonial precepts,
though the observance of the Sabbath was to be taken in a
spiritual sense (Augustine, De Spiritu et Litera. xiv.;
Jerome. De Celebratione Pascha). The medieval theo-
logians followed in the same line, recognizing all the pre-

1 Ostern und Pfingsten im zweiten Dekalog, Heidelberg, 1838. • Wellhansen in Jøhrbb, f. D. Theol,, 1876, p. 554,

cepts of the decalogue as moral precepts d lege naturæ, though the law of the Sabbath is not of the law of nature, in so far as it prescribes a determinate day of rest (Thomas, Summa, Ima II, qu. c. art. 3; Duns, Super Sententias, lib. iii. dist. 37). The most important medieval exposition of the decalogue is that of Nicolaus de Lyra; and the 15th century, in which the decalogue acquired special importance in the confessional, was prolific in treatises on the subject (Antoninus of Florence, Gerson, &c.).

Important theological controversies on the decalogue begin with the Reformation. The question between the Lutheran (Augustinian) and Reformed (Philonic) division of the ten commandments was mixed up with controversy as to the legitimacy of sacred images not designed to be worshipped. The Reformed theologians took the stricter view. The identity of the decalogue with the eternal law of nature was maintained in both churches, but it was an open question whether the decalogue, as such (that is, as a law given by Moses to the Israelites), is of perpetual obligation. The Socinians, on the other hand, regarded the decalogue as abrogated by the more perfect law of Christ; and this view, especially in the shape that the decalogue is a civil and not a moral law (J. D. Michaelis), was the current one in the period of rationalism in last century. The distinction of a permanent and a transitory element in the law of the Sabbath is found, not only in Luther and Melanchthon, but in Calvin and other theologians of the Reformed church. The main controversy which arose on the basis of this distinction was whether the prescription of one day in seven is of permanent obligation. It was admitted that such obligation must be not natural but positive; but it was argued by the stricter Calvinistic divines that the proportion of one in seven is agreeable to nature, based on the order of creation in six days, and in no way specially connected with anything Jewish. Hence it was regarded as a universal positive law of God. But those who maintained the opposite view were not excluded from the number of the orthodox. The laxer conception found a place in the Cocceian school.

Literature.-Geffcken, Ueber die verschiedenen Eintheilungen des Dekalog's und den Einfluss derselben auf den Cultus: Ewald's History of Israel, vol. ii.; Schultz's and especially Oehler's Old Testament Theology; Oehler's article "Dekalog" in Herzog's Encyclopädie ; commentaries on Exodus, especially that of Knobel iu German, and in English of Kalisch; Kuenen's Godsdienst van Israel, Hidst. v.

For

Kurtz, Geschichte des Alten Bundes, Bd. ii. ; other literature cited by Oehler and by Koehler, Biblische Geschichte, i. 287. guidance in the theological controversies about the Decalogue the student may consult Walch and Baumgarten. (W. R. S.)

DECAMPS, ALExandre Gabriel (1803–1860), one of the foremost painters of the modern French school, was born in Paris on the 3d March 1803. He received his artistic training from Abel de Pujol, but set himself free at an early period of his career from academic trammels. He asserted his originality in his choice of subjects as well as in his style of treatment. In his youth he travelled in the East. and reproduced Oriental life and scenery with a bold fidelity to nature that made his works the puzzle of conventional critics. His powers, however, soon came to be recognized, and he was ranked along with Delacroix and Vernet as one of the leaders of the French school. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 he received the grand or council medal. Most of his life was passed in the neighbourhood of Paris. He was passionately fond of animals, especially dogs, and indulged in all kinds of field sports. He died on the 22d August 1860 in consequence of being thrown from a vicious horse while hunting at Fontainebleau. The style of Decamps was characteristically and intensely French. It was marked by vivid dramatic conception, by a manipulation bold and rapid. sometimes even to roughness, and especially by original and startling use of VII. 3

decided contrasts of colour and of light and shade. His subjects embraced an unusually wide range. He availed himself of his travels in the East in dealing with scenes from scripture history, which he was probably the first of European painters to represent with their true and natural local background. Of this class were his Joseph sold by his Brethren, Moses. taken from the Nile, and his scenes from the life of Samson, nine vigorous sketches in charcoal and white. Perhaps the most impressive of his historical pictures is his Defeat of the Cimbri, representing with wonderful skill the conflict between a horde of barbarians and a disciplined army. Decamps produced a number of genre pictures, chiefly of scenes from French and Algerine domestic life, the most marked feature of which is humour. The same characteristic attaches to most of his numerous animal paintings. He painted dogs, horses, &c., with great fidelity and sympathy; but his favourite subject was monkeys, which he depicted in various studies and sketches with a grotesque humour that could scarcely be surpassed. Probably the best known of all his works is The Monkey Connoisseurs, a clever satire of the jury of the French Academy of Painting, which had rejected several of his earlier works on account of their divergence from any known standard. The pictures and sketches of Decamps were first made familiar to the English public through the lithographs of Eugène la Roux. See Moreau's Decamps et son Euvre (Paris, 1869).

DE CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PYRAMUS (1778-1841), a celebrated botanist, was born at Geneva, February 4, 1778. He was descended from one of the most ancient families of Provence, and his ancestors had been expatriated for their religion in the middle of the 16th century. His father was a famous printer, and syndic of the university and republic. Though a weakly boy he showed great aptitude for study, and distinguished himself at school by his rapid attainments in classical and general literature, and specially by a faculty for writing elegant verse, which led Florian to anticipate that he might become famous as a poet. He showed remarkable powers of memory, which proved of the greatest service to him in the science to which he ultimately devoted himself. His interest in plants was first roused while he was residing with his mother at a remote country village during the siege of Geneva in 1792. He began his scientific studies at the college of Geneva, by attending the courses of Saussure and Vaucher, the latter of whom first inspired him with the determination to make botanical science the chief pursuit of his life. In 1796 he removed to Paris, where he resided with Dolomieu, attended various courses of lectures on natural science, and gained the friendship of Jussieu and Desfontaines. His first productions, Historia Plantarum Succulentarum (4 vols., 1799) and Astragalogia (1802), introduced him to the notice of Cuvier (whose chair in the College de France he supplied in 1802), Humboldt, Biot, and Lamarck, who afterwards confided to him the publication of the third edition of the Flore Française (1803-15). The introduction to this work contained the first exposition of his principle of classification according to the natural as opposed to the Linnean or artificial method. Having been elected (1804) doctor of medicine by the medical faculty of Paris, he wrote, as an inaugural work, the Essai sur les propriétés médicinales des plantes com parées avec leurs formes extérieures et leur classification naturelle, and soon after, in 1806, his Synopsis plantarum in flora Gallica descriptarum. At the desire of the French Government he spent the summers of the following six years in making a botanical and agricultural survey of the whole kingdom, the results of which he published in 1813. In 1807 he was appointed professor of botany in the medical faculty of the university of Montpellier, and in 1810 he was transferred to the newly founded chair of

The

botany of the faculty of sciences in the same university. He was an admirable lecturer, and the gardens under his charge were much improved during his occupancy of the chair. From Montpellier he removed to Geneva in 1816, having been invited by the now independent republic to fill the newly created chair of natural history. The rest of his life was spent in an attempt to elaborate and complete his "natural" system of botanical classification. results of his labours in this department are to be found in his Regni vegetabilis systema naturale, of which two volumes only were completed (1821) when he found that it would be impossible for him to execute the whole work on so extensive a scale. He accordingly commenced in 1824 a less extensive work in the same direction-his Prodromus systematis regni vegetabilis,—but even of this he was able to finish only seven volumes, or two-thirds of the whole, It was carried on after his death by his son Alphonse, who in 1834 had succeeded him in his professorship. He had been for several years in delicate health when he died on the 9th September 1841 at Turin, whither he had gone to attend a scientific reunion. De Candolle received diplomas or the honour of membership from most of the learned societies of Europe, and was a very frequent contributor to their Transactions. Louis Philippe decorated him with the cross of the Legion of Honour. He was highly esteemed in his native city, where he was for a long period rector of the academy and a member of the legislature. For an estimate of his place as a botanist see BOTANY, vol. iv. p. 80.

See Flourens's Eloge de Candolle (1842), and De la Rive's Candolle, sa Vie et ses Travaux (1851).

DECAPOLIS, a district of Palestine, or perhaps rather a confederation of districts, situated, with the exception of a small portion, on the eastern side of the Upper Jordan and the Sea of Tiberias. Its boundaries are not accurately known, and probably were never precisely defined. It evidently takes its name from the fact that it included ten cities (déka wóλes), but the ancient geographers do not agree as to which these ten cities were. This difference of statement may be explained by the supposition that, like the Cinque Ports of England, Decapolis preserved its original designation after new members were received into the confederation, and perhaps some of the old members had lost their connection. Pliny recognizes the uncertainty, but gives the following list :-Damascus, Philadelphia, Raphana, Scythopolis (on the west side of the Jordan), Gadara, Hippo, Dion, Pella, Galasa (Gerasa), and Canatha. Damascus is the only one that retains its importance; Scythopolis, or Beth-Shean, which seems to have been anciently the next in size, is represented by the village of Beisan; and Gerasa, Canatha or Kenath, and Pella are of interest only for their ruins. Decapolis was placed by the Romans under the jurisdiction of the Syrian governor, and seems to have enjoyed special privileges. Regarding the rise and decay of the confederation we have no precise information, but it was at the height of its prosperity in the time of Christ.

DECATUR, a flourishing city of the United States, capital of Macon county, Illinois, situated in the midst of a rich agricultural district to the right of the Sangamon river, at a railway junction about 38 miles east of Springfield. It is well built, and has 15 churches and 24 public schools; but none of its edifices are individually remarkable Among its industrial establishments is a large rolling mill, Population in 1870, 7161.

DECCAN (DAKSHIN, the Country of the South), in India, includes, according to Hindu geographers, the whole of the territories situated to the south of the Nerbudda. In its more modern acceptation, however, it is sometimes understood as comprising only the

country lying between that river and the Krishna, | extreme breadth exceeds 800. This vast tract comprehends
the latter having for a long period formed the southern the chief provinces now distributed between the presidencies
boundary of the Mahometan empire of Delhi. Assign- of Madras and Bombay, together with the native states of
ing it the more extended of these limits, it compre- Hyderabad and Mysore, and those of Kolápur, Sawant-
hends the whole of the Indian peninsula, and in this view wári, Travancore, Cochin, and the petty possessions of
the mountainous system, consisting of the Eastern and France and Portugal.
Western Ghats, constitutes the most striking feature of DECEMBER, the last month of the year. In the
the Deccan. These two mountain ranges unite at their Roman calendar, traditionally ascribed to Romulus, the
northern extremities with the Vindhya chain of mountains, year was divided into ten months, the last of which was
and thus is formed a vast triangle supporting at a consider- called December, or the tenth month, and this name,
able elevation the expanse of table-land which stretches though etymologically incorrect, was retained for the last
from Cape Comorin to the valley of the Nerbudda. The or twelfth month of the year as now divided. In the
surface of this table-land slopes from west to east as Romulian calendar December had thirty days; Numa
indicated by the direction of the drainage of the country, reduced the number to twenty-nine; Julius Cæsar added
the great rivers the Cauvery, Godavery, Krishna, and two days to this, giving the month its present length. The
Pennaar, though deriving their sources from the base of the Saturnalia occurred in December, which is therefore styled
Western Gbáts, all finding their way into the Bay of acceptus geniis" by Ovid (Fasti, iii. 58); and this also
Bengal through fissures in the Eastern Ghats.
explains the phrase of Horace "libertate Decembri utere"
(Sat. ii. 7). Martial applies to the month the epithet
canus (hoary), and Ovid styles it gelidus (frosty) and
fumosus (smoky). The Saxons called it winter-monat, or
winter month, and heligh-monat, or holy month, from the
fact that Christmas fell within it. The 22d December is
the date of the winter solstice, when the sun reaches the
tropic of Capricorn.

In early times this country embraced that possessed by the five Hindu princes of Telingana, Maharashta, the Tamul country, Orissa, and Carnata or Bijayanagar. It was first invaded by the Mahometans in 1294, who stormed Deogiri, the capital of Maharashta, und abandoned the city to pillage. In the year 1325 the Mahometans made further progress in its conquest; and having extirpated the Hindu dynasties, they annexed the provinces as far south as the Krishna to the empire of Delhi. The imperial sway was, however, of brief duration. Telingana and Carnata speedily reverted to their former nasters; and this defection on the part of the Hindu states was followed by a general revolt, resulting in the establishment in 1347 of the independent Mahometan dynasty of Bahmani, and the consequent withdrawal of the power of Delhi from the territory south of the Nerbudda. In the struggles which ensued, the Hindu kingdom of Telingana fell to the Mussulmans, who at a later period formed a league against the remaining Hindu prince, and at the battle of Talikota in 1565 destroyed the monarchy of Bijayanagar or Carnata. On the dissolution of the Bahmani empire, its dominions were distributed into the five Mahometan states of Golconda, Bijápur, Ahmednagar, Beder, and Berar. Of these the larger succeeded in subverting those of less importance; and in 1630, during the reign of Shah Jahan of Delhi, the greater proportion of the Deccan had been absorbed by the kingdoms of Golconda, Ahmednagar, and Bijapur. During the reign of Aurungzebe (in the latter half of the 17th century) all those states were reduced, and the Deccan was again annexed to the empire of Delhi. In the subsequent reigns, when the great empire of Aurungzebe fell into decay, the Nizám threw off his alliegiance and fixed his court at Hyderabad. At the same time the Mahrattas, emerging from obscurity, established a powerful monarchy, which was usurped by the Peshwa. The remainder of the imperial possessions in the peninsula were held by chieftains acknowledging the supremacy of one or other of these two potentates. In the sequel, Mysore became the prize of the Mahometan usurper Hyder Ali. During the contests for power which ensued about the middle of the last century between the natiw chiefs, the French and the English took opposite sides. After a brief course of triumph, the interests of France declined, and a new empire in India was established by the British. Mysore formed one of their earliest conquests in the Deccan. Tanjore and the Carnatic were shortly after annexed to their dominions. In 1818 the forfeited possessions of the Peshwa added to their extent; and these acquisitions, with others which have more recently fallen to the paramount power by cession, conquest, or failure of heirs, form a continuous territory stretching from the Nerbudda to Cape Comorin. Its length is upwards of 1000 miles, and its

66

DECEMVIRI (i.e., the ten men), ten magistrates of absolute authority among the Roinans. Their appointment, according to Roman tradition, was due to plebeian dissatisfaction with the capricious administration of justice by the patricians, who had no written law to direct them. On the representation to the senate of the popular griev ances by the tribunes, commissioners were sent to Greece to collect the laws of Solon and of the other celebrated legislators of Greece. On the return of these commissioners it was agreed, after much discussion, that ten new magistrates, called decemviri, should be elected from the senate to draw up a body of laws. Their election involved the abdication of all other magistrates; they were invested with supreme power, and presided over the city with regal authority. They were, each in turn, clothed with the badges of the cousulship, and the one so distinguished had the power of assembling the senate and confirming its decrees. The first decemvirs were chosen in the year 302 A.U.C. (451 B.C.) They arranged the laws by which their government was to be regulated in ten divisions, submitted them to the senate and comitia for their approbation, and, after the code was recognized as constitutional, administered it with so much moderation and efficiency that the continuance of the decemviral office for another year was unanimously voted. The second body of decemvirs included one member of the first-Appius Claudius-and, according to Niebuhr, five plebeians. The new magistrates added to the laws which had already been enacted, and thus completed the celebrated leges duodecim tubularum, on which ail Roman law, in future ages, was founded. Their administration, however, was as unpopular as that of their predecessors had been the reverse; and, by its partiality and injustice, which reached a climax in the flagitious pursuit of Virginia by Appius Claudius, it so roused the popular fury that the abolition of the office was effected. But, as Sir G. Cornewall Lewis has shown in his work on the Credibility of Early Roman History, it is difficult to write with scientific accuracy about this episode in Roman history. There were other magistrates in Rome, called decemvirs, in regard to whose appointment and jurisdiction information is scanty. Scholars differ concerning the date of their institution, and the special functions of their office. There is evidence, however, that such a court existed during the empire; but it is uncertain whether the jurisdiction of the later coincided

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